Fire at Batesville Casket Company shuts down plant, injures firefighter

One Manchester firefighter was injured Monday afternoon while helping extinguish a blaze at Batesville Casket Company.

Manchester firefighter Jimmy Hollandsworth is transported to Medical Center of Manchester Monday after being injured at a fire at Batesville Casket Company. Hollandsworth injured his leg. His condition is currently unavailable. (Staff photo by John Coffelt)

Jimmy Hollandsworth, 45, was injured at the scene of the fire when he landed awkwardly after jumping off a loading dock to retrieve equipment. He is an eight-year veteran of the Manchester Fire and Rescue Department. According to Manchester Fire Chief Charlie Taylor, Hollandsworth was doing OK at Medical Center of Manchester Monday afternoon and was undergoing an X-ray on his leg. He was transported by ambulance from the scene of the fire. The X-ray showed no injuries to his leg but his knee is hurting, Taylor said.

“He seems to be doing better and in a little better shape than he was at the scene,” Taylor said. Originally, an ambulance was dispatched for a firefighter with a broken leg.

The fire at Batesville, 175 Monogard Dr., was dispatched at approximately noon as “some sort of fire.” When the Manchester Fire Department arrived they discovered the fire was in a paint booth.

“It pretty well extinguished itself,” said Taylor. “It had gotten above the booth and was really hard to get to. The extinguishing system there pretty well handled it. It wasn’t a major thing it was just really hard for us to get to.”

Taylor wasn’t sure about damages.

“We will have to get back with Batesville about that,” he said.

All Manchester firefighters, including off-duty, were paged to help with the blaze.

“We page all of our people for every structure fire,” explained Taylor.

No Batesville employees were injured during the incident. The plant will be closed for at least one day while damage is accessed and repaired.

“We had about 150 associates in the building and none of them were injured,” said Teresa Gyulafia, communications director with Batesville Casket Company.

“The fire, we believe, started in a paint-finishing system. We are still assessing the damage but we expect the plant to be down for at least one day.”

Employees who were working Monday were sent home for the day, Gyulafia said.

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